Rise of the 1630s South America

Chapter 1974 Terrace (26)

"This is the county seat of Shuanghu County? It's really good. It's very beautiful in Patagonia." On February 1687, 2, beside the beautiful West Lake, Meng Xiaohu, who had already served as the Minister of Water Resources, Roaming freely on the grass covered with wildflowers, he said with emotion.

Fifteen years ago, he led a large-scale expedition to the twin lakes (Kolhuevapi Lake and Musters Lake), and then thoroughly investigated here for a long time.During the period, they measured the area and water depth of the lake, estimated the water storage capacity, inspected the fertility of the surrounding soil, and recorded the vegetation and animal resources.Before leaving, a simple weather station was also established and has been working until now, making outstanding contributions to the economic development of Shuanghu County today.

Shuanghu County was established in 1684. It has jurisdiction over Shuanghu Township, Nanding Township, Houtu Township, Honghe Township and Mayue Township. There are a total of five townships with a population of only 9000. The main economy is agriculture and animal husbandry. model.After the establishment of Shuanghu County, the people on the east bank did not stop moving south. They established two more counties in the south, namely Dejing County and Funing County.The former governs Dejing Township (located near the later Little Chile City), Kaiguang Township, Wuding Township, Ruling Township, Mihun Township (located near the later Lago Posadas Village), Diaoyin Township, a total of six townships , the population is even rarer, with only about [-] people, who are also mainly engaged in agriculture and animal husbandry; near many small towns), Daye Township (near the small village of Tres Celos in later generations), a total of three townships with a population of just over [-] people, even less than Qingfeng County in the southern island group of Chile, which is the smallest county in the country .

Both Dejing and Funing counties belong to the Southern Patagonia region and are respectively the 145th and 146th county-level administrative units in the country.After the establishment of these two counties, the vast Patagonian Terrace area was basically developed, and there was no longer a blank area that was not touched by the people on the east coast.

Of course, this so-called development is actually quite watery.First of all, this is just the completion of the "opening up" on the map, and the delineation of the geographical boundaries of counties and townships. There is still a certain distance from the real actual control. The most direct evidence is that there are still Thuelche living in this land. Human and Araucan tribes were not wiped out by the East Coast Army.Secondly, even those places where settlements have been established are sparsely populated and the infrastructure is even poorer. The residents in most places actually make a living by selling sheepskin, mutton and wool. Occasionally, some places with rich aquatic plants will raise some Animals such as horses and cows, or growing some grain, fruits and vegetables, ordinary people generally have low incomes, and their lives are relatively miserable.

It is worth mentioning that due to national policies, the first batch of land reclamation in Patagonia were basically non-national laborers who had become regular workers.Benefiting from the Homestead Law, they became official citizens of the East Coast after the five-year working period expired and passed the Chinese language test, and were assigned to the Patagonian Terrace.They are mainly of Slavic origin (Italians are mainly assigned to the hot and humid Brazilian area to open up wasteland), more precisely, they are mainly Russians, supplemented by some Mongolian and Shandan immigrants from the mainland, forming Patagonia The main force of reclamation of sub-tablelands.

In general, these Russian-born East Coast nationals do not have much dissatisfaction.Although it is cold, dry, and desolate here, the land, cattle and sheep allocated to everyone are not fake. It's not bad, at least it's much better than their hometown in Russia, so they are all very peaceful, silently transforming the land of Patagonia.

There are also many Russians living here in Shuanghu County, and the urban architecture also has a bit of Russian characteristics.In particular, the conspicuous two-storey villa with a large number of religious reliefs carved on it was designed and supervised by Goshkin's son, Goivan, as his family's other courtyard.Goiwan, who graduated from Qingdao Road and Bridge School, also designed many facilities for the city, such as the county government administrative building, the wool merchant's guild hall, the national grain reserve grain warehouse, etc., and is still well-known in the city. At the same time, he is also a capable person and hero in the minds of all Russians in the local area.

Go Yiwan happened to be on vacation in the city today, and after meeting Meng Xiaohu, an old acquaintance, he was dragged for a stroll together.Meng Xiaohu is now the Minister of Water Resources, which can be regarded as a high position and authority.Considering the huge investment in water conservancy on the east coast today, the special construction funds that Meng Xiaohu receives every year is unknown, which is very attractive to Goshkin Construction Company, so both public and private, Goivan You must stay by his side and maintain this hard-won relationship.

"In terms of urban construction, Shuanghu County actually has a lot of investment." Ge Yiwan followed closely behind Meng Xiaohushen, half a step behind, and this meeting only listened to his introduction: "Especially the investment from the government. I don't know." What is the reason? The country has invested three times more infrastructure investment in Shuanghu County than other counties in South Patagonia. Not only is the road from Shuanghu Township to Nanding Port a second-class road (normally it should be a third-class road ), the two places have also built complete water supply plants, sewage pipes and treatment facilities, gas lighting systems, and relatively good office buildings, etc. In addition, there are many special facilities, such as the connection between the suburbs of Shuanghu Town The canals and irrigation systems of East Lake and West Lake, and the slightly advanced wharf and port facilities of Nanding Port are a bit confusing. Is such a county whose main output commodity is wool, worth allocating so much money from above? But no matter what , This is a good thing for the people of Shuanghu County, a great thing! The various construction projects have given them more job opportunities, especially many residents here have worked on construction sites for at least five years , Doing these things is simply familiar."

"Yeah, I'm sure of their professionalism. You see, the canal is well built, and it should last quite a while. The irrigation canals are just okay, without cutting corners, and they've brought a couple of state farms valuable Water source. I think the next step is to award them the construction of the reservoir, at least their construction quality is still guaranteed." Meng Xiaohu nodded and said: "However, your Goshkin Company is not very interested in these projects now Right? Compared with these projects that are not very rich in oil and water, your company now prefers railway projects, right? I heard that your father has been living in Beijing recently, and he inquired about the news of the wool transportation special railway line. Hehe, it seems that he is eyeing This piece of fat."

Goiwan could only smile when he heard that.The current Goshkin Construction Company is no different than before. With the number of employees dwindling, they can no longer undertake one project after another as unscrupulously as before.Goiwan is also involved in the company's decision-making and knows the current situation best. He knows that his company's favorite is the various road and bridge projects directly invested by the central government, especially the lucrative railway construction projects.

At present, the only non-railway project contracted by the company is a sewer pipeline renovation project in some sections of Ping'an County, and the rest of the resources are basically invested in railway construction projects.They now have three project departments, one is the forest railway project department located in the northern Dingjunshan area, the other is the Yanbu Railway project department, and the third is the Northern Railway project department.

The forest railway was funded by the Italians. The construction of this stupid project was stopped due to lack of funds, and it has never been repaired. It has only reached Zuocheng Town so far.Let them continue to build and reach Houqiu Town on the bank of the Wujiang River. The Italians pushed back and forth again. It is very cheating until the next urging from the shore people, and the Goshkin construction company is also exhausted, and it doesn't even want to cooperate with the forest development company.

Both the Yanbu Railway and the Northern Railway are not bad.The former is a national key project. Although the funds cannot be said to be abundant, the government will inject capital into it as soon as it has money. Compared with other domestic projects that wait for the rice to be cooked, it is much better. Therefore, Goshkin Construction Company has always been strong Will stay here and do my best to get this rail line right.

Compared with the Yanbu railway, the priority of the northern railway is not so high.In fact, this railway that runs through the essence of the East Coast has either been built with local government advances over the years (but they have little money), or it has been funded by government bonds. So far, although the main line has been run through, some newly planned branch lines Still under construction.The Goshkin Construction Company undertook the most critical part of it, and it has been repaired and repaired for many years. During this period, the team even went to the river area to repair the flood control embankment and reservoir, but there was no one there.

However, I heard that the central government can't see the super-slow progress of the Northern Railway. It plans to issue another debt in the near future, and at the same time draw a few 10 yuan from the transportation lottery prize pool to completely complete the main line and branch lines of this railway. It is connected with Damei Railway (Daxing-Meluo, formerly Northwest Railway), Xiaqing Railway (Xiayihe-Qingdao), and Xiajing Railway (formerly Grassland Railway) to form a huge railway network. The effectiveness of the railway.As a person in the industry, Goiwan has naturally heard about this. In fact, he is a little surprised that the government is still insisting on building railways that are not very profitable despite such huge military expenditures. This determination is too strong!However, this is also a good thing for their company. Presumably, some payments that have been in arrears for several years can be paid, and the company's finances will not be so tight. It is also a sad reminder that they all went to the bank for loans at the beginning.

Recently, the State Administration of Railways has heard rumors that the American Railway Company will start the construction of the wool transportation special railway on the Patagonian platform before the Yanbu Railway is fully open to traffic.This railway is actually a big project, with two branch lines. One starts from Jincheng Town in the Jincheng Valley, passes through Jincheng, Shangluo, Shuofang, Pule, Xuanwu, and Daliang counties all the way, and finally arrives at Yancheng Port; Starting from Dingnan County, a fertile Hecheng Oasis, passing through Luyang County, and finally arriving at Yancheng Port, it is shorter than the first route, but the area it passes through is richer and more populous.

It can be seen from this that this wool transportation line (actually a replica of the wool transportation railway built by the British in Patagonia in the early 20th century) is actually a big deal with a long mileage.Therefore, the Goshkins and his sons were a little puzzled about this, and even some did not believe that the central government would have money to repair it.However, for such a big event, it is always better to believe it than to believe it, so Goshkin does not dare to neglect, and now spends every day in the capital to inquire about news, just in case it is true, he can be one step ahead Pull the project, which is crucial to the future development of the company.

"The wool transportation line is basically inseparable. This is not only for the transportation of wool and sheepskin, but also to strengthen the connection with Chile. Now our technology is not yet mature. Once it matures in the future, this The wool transportation railway is actually going to cross the Andes Mountains, go directly to the Central Valley of Chile, and go to the sea there." Meng Xiaohu looked at Goiwan who followed suit, and pointed out: "But the central government is now investing heavily in the construction of the navy. , various expenditures are huge, coupled with the current aggressive expansion strategy, there will be more places to spend money, so the two lines of the wool transportation line cannot be started at the same time. The tendency of the above is to build first to determine the difficulty , Luyang, you can figure it out for yourself."

(End of this chapter)